


Come to My Windows

by Spiderverse (SpiritLamp)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: First Time, M/M, Secret Identity, Secret Identity Fail, Tumblr: starkerfestivals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:14:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28485198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpiritLamp/pseuds/Spiderverse
Summary: Prompt fromkreket-popcorn-lover:  Tony doesn't know that Peter is Spider-Man, but is intrigued by the web-slinger, and wants to know him. He already knows Peter as his personal intern.While dropping off some folders for his boss, Peter discovers that Tony Stark is infatuated with Parker's crimefighting alter-ego, Spider-Man.
Relationships: Peter Parker/Tony Stark
Comments: 7
Kudos: 106
Collections: Starker Festivals Holiday Exchange 2020





	Come to My Windows

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Alexei2020](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alexei2020/gifts).



“Mister Stark?” Parker asked, poking his head into Tony’s office. “I got those merger documents you asked for?” 

Earlier that day, Peter had sat tentatively in a board meeting, dutifully taking notes about the complicated subject of adopting Alchemix as a potential Stark subsidiary. Parker noticed that his boss, Tony Stark, didn’t seem all that invested in the merger. Instead, he seemed very preoccupied with something on his tablet. Peter imagined that Stark, being both the owner of the most profitable tech empire in the world and an infamous vigilante, probably had a lot on his plate. So much that something like a boardroom might be relegated to the back burner if some international crisis was threatening to surface. 

Parker has his own reasons for being hyper-aware when Tony seemed distracted that reached beyond his role as Tony’s personal assistant; he was a vigilante in his own right. While “Spider-man” wasn’t exactly on Iron Man’s level in terms of skill or importance, he was still invested in the role he did play. He dedicated a lot of his time to public safety, handling small and medium-sized crime activity with his super strength and, more importantly, his whip-smart one-liners. 

The motion sensors in Tony’s office clicked the lights on as Peter stepped inside. It seemed his boss was so engaged by whatever had distracted him at the meeting, he clean forgot about the fact he’d asked Parker to bring him the files. This wasn’t an entirely unusual occurrence, and Parker didn’t linger on the fact he’d been forgotten, instead just shrugging it off and carrying the densely packed manilla envelopes over to Tony’s disorderly desk. 

As he placed the documents down, he inadvertently knocked Tony’s computer mouse. It must not have been that long since Stark left his office because the desktop still hasn't locked when the screen springs to life. Ordinarily, Parker would have paid Tony’s work no mind, but looking at the screen, he was shocked to see a photo of himself. Well, a version of himself anyway, because Stark’s display was practically swarmed with photos of Spider-man. 

Curiosity overcame him, and without even considering how much trouble he could be in for poking around on his boss’s computer, Parker slipped into Stark’s desk chair to investigate just why on earth Spider-Man was taking up so much real estate on Tony’s computer. He understood if Tony had taken a passing interest in Peter’s alter ego; they were in a very similar line of work. However, within a few clicks, Parker realized that Stark’s interest wasn’t passing or merely professional. Alongside the photos, Peter found online articles, PDF copies of forum posts and comments, and a few attempts made by Tony to find Spider-Man’s identity by tracing some of the material that Parker had uploaded (thankfully, his VPN thwarted those attempts) and reviewing the footage from several public and private New York security cameras. Stark’s fascination with the wallcrawler, it seemed, ran very deep. It was so intense that Parker might have felt a little nervous if he wasn’t so incredibly flattered. He’d been a fan of Iron Man’s work and his manifesto for most of his life, and it was Tony Stark himself that Peter had always tried to model himself after. 

On top of this life-long admiration that Parker held for his boss, there were other feelings the twenty-something intern was yet to unpack fully. Like Iron Man’s newly discovered fixation on Spider-man, Peter’s interest in his boss wasn’t strictly professional or career orientated. He’d been working as Tony’s personal assistant for the past three years (since he’d finished his Master’s at Columbia) and in all that time hadn’t once managed a successful romantic relationship with anyone. He’d tried a few times, and whenever those dalliances fell apart, Peter would tell himself it was his lack of a life/work balance. That having a career and spending his off-hours web-slinging through the streets of Manhattan just left too little time for love to sink its teeth into him. But deep down, he knew that the reason he was so averse to making romantic connections with others was that there was someone he couldn’t get over. He was stuck on Tony Stark; he had been since he’d first become a little infatuated with Iron Man’s heroics as a kid. 

For a long time, Stark just represented a safe, celebrity-type crush that Peter could hinge his feelings on while he figured himself out. But after meeting Stark at a few academic conferences and lectures at Columbia, Peter’s feelings for Tony started to move from the ‘unobtainable fantasy’ to ‘unobtainable reality’ as Parker got more and more opportunities to pine for Stark in person. 

He’d entertained the thought more than once of revealing to Tony that he was Spider-Man, but the business of keeping a secret identity was complex. In some ways, the fact that Stark had never mentioned Spider-Man in passing conversation was part of the reason that Peter had never shared the truth with his boss. He didn’t think Spider-Man was really on Iron Man’s level, and he was worried that Tony might laugh at Parker’s feeble attempts to help people because the conflicts he faced were so small in comparison to the world-ending crisis the Avengers typically staunched. But, when it came to someone as prestigious and connected as Iron Man, the benefits for letting him in his secret, Peter reasoned, far outweighed the negatives. Nevertheless, even now, faced with the fact that Stark seemed to be thoroughly impressed with Spider-man, he was anxious that Stark might be irritated that Peter had kept his secret or, perhaps worse, embarrassed that he hadn’t figured it out sooner. 

Now, he had something to contemplate: if he were to combat his anxiety and decide to tell Tony, what method did he use? A heartfelt confession letter felt too ‘Regency’ for his taste, Stark hated being handed things, and it might come across as a resignation attempt. Calling some meeting seemed too formal, and Peter worried that he’d end up stumbling over his own nerves and trying to backpedal at the last moment if he went in that direction. Most of the time, when people had learned about his identity, it had been at least some degree of accidental, so he didn’t really have a list of tried and tested methods, which made deciding on a course of action all the more difficult. 

After spinning in Tony’s office chair for a few minutes longer, he came upon a solution. It might not have been the best approach, and his chosen method might have been the product of his mounting dizziness, but something about the fact Tony seemed to be collecting photos and articles about Spider-Man inspired him. So why not give Tony an exclusive Spider-Man photo series as part of the reveal? He could take a few photos of himself here in Tony’s office and then use that ‘gift’ as a jumping-off point to explain who he really was. Always, beneath his work attire, he kept his suit on in case he needed to spring into action unexpectedly, so it was just a matter of digging his mask out of his pocket and stripping off his trousers and Oxford shirt. Something that would take less than a few seconds and an act that Peter had no anticipation of being interrupted during. 

One skill Peter truly needed to develop was his ability to look at outcomes from all possible angles. In this case, he truly should have anticipated that an extensive number of security cameras oversaw Stark’s office. 

“What are you doing in here?” 

Parker nearly fell over, tripping on the pants that he was in the process of stepping out of, as his spider-sense made the hairs on the back of his neck stand at attention the very same moment that Tony Stark walked back into his office. Peter half-spun, half-hopped in an attempt to turn around and face his boss. He was still standing in his pants, his tie hanging over a shoulder and his shirt unbuttoned to reveal his bright blue and red Spider-Man suit. His mask hadn’t made it to his head yet; he still held it in his hand. 

For a few breaths, they both stood there, utterly motion-locked in confusion and, in Peter’s case, abject horror. For Parker, auto-pilot was quicker to take over than it was for Tony, and with nothing else to do, Peter slowly raised his hands to his head, slipped on his mask, and said in a soft, quizzical tone: “I’m Spider-Man?” 

“Yeah.” Slowly, Tony put his hands in his pockets, tilting his head to one side as he absorbed more of what he was looking at. “I guess I can see that. Saw that.”

Stark gestured to a couple of the security cameras in the corners of the room. In Peter’s defense, they were flush with the wall and intentionally hard to spot if a person didn’t know what they were looking for. Of course, now that they were pointed out to him, they seemed enormous and glaringly obvious. 

A bit of color drained from Peter’s face, and he looked at the floor. There really was no excuse for what he was doing, looking through his boss’s computer, taking off his clothes in Stark’s office, all of it seemed as absolutely stupid as he must currently look, standing there in a state of half-dress. “I -”

“Should have told me sooner.” Stark finished for him, his voice tinged with just enough gentleness that Peter raised his chin to look at Tony once more. Stark waved a hand in the air dismissively and then took a step towards Peter. “Let me get a better look at you.

“Mister Stark?” 

Tony approached him and placed a hand on Peter, sliding his fingers beneath the Oxford to push it off Parker’s shoulder. Peter obliged him, shrugging the shirt off and letting Tony take it from him before he finally stepped out of the rest of his clothes before he stood, still without his mask, in front of his boss. 

Parker couldn’t get a read off of Tony. Even standing this close to him and watching Tony look him over, there was no indication of whether or not Parker had found himself in any trouble. “I’m - I’m really sorry. I just accidentally saw that you had all these articles about Spider-Man and-”

“You mean, about you,” Tony corrected. “Could you turn around?”

“Sure. About me.” Peter nodded and obeyed, turning around to face the floor-to-ceiling windows behind him. He could still catch a glimpse of Tony via his reflection in the glass, “and I was confused, or maybe flattered, or maybe - I’ve been trying to think of ways to tell you and I -” 

“Settled on just taking off your clothes in my office.” 

“I -” Peter cringed. “Well, when you say it like that-” 

“Is there another way to say it?” After taking in the view for a moment longer, Tony put his hand on Peter’s side, causing the younger man to tense and stand a little straighter. With his free hand, he reached forward and tugged the Spider-Man mask out of Peter’s hand. “I’m just, you know, a little surprised?” 

“That I poked around your office? That I hadn’t told you this sooner? That I’m Spider-Man, that-” Peter looked at his hands, visibly counting on his fingers all the possible things about this situation that could have possibly surprised Stark. 

“Well. Yes.” Tony admitted, tossing the mask to the corner of his desk. “But also, no.” 

“Then what?”

“I’ve been thinking about Spider-man for months, and it never occurred to me that he was right in front of me this whole time. I’m surprised that one person could be -”

“What?” Not expecting any of what Stark was saying, Peter couldn’t help but interrupt. He’d anticipated a lecture or at least some irritation, but Stark seemed almost like he was the one confessing a secret, now, instead of him. Turning around, Peter suddenly realized that Stark had closed more of the distance between them than he’d realized. As a result, once again, Peter almost lost his balance. He caught himself at the last moment by leaning backward, putting a hand against the window as he looked up at Tony. “That one person could be what?” 

Tony reached up a hand and touched the Spider-emblem on Parker’s chest before raising his fingertips to catch Peter’s jawline. Almost instantly, the tension in the younger man’s face relaxed, and he tilted his head, all but melting completely into the palm of Tony’s hand. He searched Tony’s gaze for an answer to his question and sighed softly as it came in the form of Stark’s thumb brushing across his bottom lip. 

“That one person could be everything I wanted.”


End file.
